Wlodzimierz

The first reference to Jews in Włodzimierz Wołyński relates to the end of the 12th century. After the Third Partition of Poland (1795), Włodzimierz Wołyński, like the whole Volhyn District, became part of the Russian Empire. The Jewish population grew steadily. In 1897 the city's 5,869 Jews comprised 59.4 percent of the total population. After World War I Włodzimierz Wołyński was incorporated into the independent Polish state. Jews dominated the economic life in the city - they engaged in manufacturing and trade and owned, among other businesses, a sawmill, soap and candle factories, and flour mills. Many local Jews were artisans. Various political organizations (the Bund, Agudas Yisroel) and Zionist youth movements (such as Hashomer Hatzair and Beitar), were active in the community. Jewish educational institutions in Włodzimierz Wołyński included a primary school and an agricultural high school that belonged to the Tarbut Zionist Hebrew-language network of educational institutions. A Talmud Torah, a yeshiva, a private Jewish high school, and ORT vocational schools also operated in the city. In 1937 approximately 11,500 Jews lived in Włodzimierz, where they comprised 39 percent of the total population.

In September 1939, with the arrival of the Red Army in the city following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Włodzimierz Wołyński became part of Soviet Ukraine. During this period many Jewish refugees from western parts of Poland settled in the city. Under Soviet rule Jewish political parties and institutions were dismantled and economic enterprises were nationalized. The Tarbut Hebrew high school became a Yiddish-language Soviet school.

On June 23, 1941 the Germans captured Włodzimierz Wołyński. Very few Jews managed to flee the city. The Germans very soon selected Jews for forced labor. On July 5, 1941 150 Jewish men who had been arrested were murdered at the city's prison by a German unit. On July 7, a Judenrat (Jewish council), headed by Rabbi Yaakov David Morgenstern, was established in the city, and a Jewish Order Service (Jewish police force) was set up under Leib Kudisz. When Rabbi Morgenstern died several weeks later, a lawyer named Weiler took over as head of the Judenrat. When Weiler was taken for forced labor in late August 1941, a dentist named Baradach was appointed in his place.

On July 31 and August 29-30, 1941 another several hundred Jews (including some women) were killed at the city prison.

A ghetto, surrounded by two-meter-high barbed wire, was set up on April 13, 1942. The Judenrat members and doctors were allowed to live outside the ghetto. The overcrowded ghetto was soon ravaged by starvation and a typhus epidemic, which was exacerbated by a shortage of medicine. Anybody caught trying to smuggle food into the ghetto was punished. In May the ghetto was divided into two sections; one section, where most of the Jews had to stay, was referred to by Jews as the "living ghetto" and was for skilled workers, while the other section, "the dead ghetto," was for unskilled workers. The gates between the two ghettos were guarded by the Jewish police. Passage between the ghettos was limited to specific hours. The ghetto had a soup kitchen and hospital. Jews were assigned to manufacturing and farm labor, and the ghetto contained needlework and shoe making workshops. Only Jews holding work permits could exit the ghetto, leaving and return daily in groups. Forced labor assignments included cleaning for the German police, working in a marmalade factory, delivering mineral water, and agricultural work. In early August 1942 some Jews were assigned to dig sections of a ditch for a secret cable from Berlin to Kiev; this work cost many of them their lives.

On September 1, 1942 several thousand Jews were taken from the "dead ghetto" and, later on the same day, many were taken from the "living ghetto" to the Piatydni pits outside the city and shot to death there. Another several thousand were killed in the city prison. This murder operation in Włodzimierz Wołyński and its vicinity lasted two weeks -- until September 15. Those who survived this murder operation joined the people who emerged from hiding places and returned to the ghetto from the countryside. The latter Jews had been assured that the survivors would be left alive, so gradually their number reached several thousand. To hold these survivors the ghetto was reestablished on the former territory of the "dead ghetto." Leib Kudisz was appointed head of the Judenrat in the new ghetto. The ghetto's inmates were released from the obligation of having to wear the yellow badge. Many were put to work cleaning the ghetto and sorting the belongings of the murdered Jews. The clothing and furniture were either given or sold at low prices to the local population. In November the ghetto was divided into two, one half for skilled workers and the other half for unskilled workers. New work papers were issued to 365 people. On November 13, 1942 the ghetto for unskilled workers was liquidated in a surprise murder operation, resulting in the murder of several thousand Jews at Piatydni. Thus, only several hundred Jews were kept alive. The Germans repeatedly selected Jews from the ghetto until the end of the year; about several hundred escapees and fugitives who tried to enter the ghetto were murdered at the city prison.

In January 1943 there were around 800 Jews officially living in the ghetto; The Włodzimierz Wołyński ghetto-camp, the only ghetto remaining in Reichskommissariat Ukraine, then consisted of about 20 buildings. It was no longer enclosed and the Jews were even allowed to dispense with the identifying marks on their clothing. The skilled laborers worked as shoemakers, haberdashers, tailors, carpenters, masons, and photographers. There was a bakery, a laundry, a small production site for brushes, a sign shop, and a suitcase-maker's workshop. Conditions in the ghetto were impossibly overcrowded and filthy, and the inmates suffered from hunger and disease. This situation continued for a year. The last Jews in Wlodzsimierz Wolynski, including Leib Kudisz, the head of the Judenrat, were shot to death and their bodies burned on December 13, 1943 near the village of Falemicze outside the city.

Wlodzimierz Wolynski was liberated by the Red Army on July 20, 1944.